health/longevity & performance in gymnastics vs. bboy vs. circus

Ronin168 said:

yeah, i'm considering doing something like this (like doing a hybrid style where i mix different movement practices together).  i've been taking formal gymnastics lessons since august, and i am not impressed at all with the level of instruction from adult gymnastics coaches.  i learn more from youtube and other websites than from the actual coaches.

Do you have the opportunity to try a different gymnastics gym? There are some good ones out there for adults. I've been to 4 different ones (being back and forth at uni really helps) of different quality, the worst being "here is gymnastics hall, have fun", and the best having multiple coaches and coached to the same standards and same way they coached their kids (but scaled appropriately for adults)

If you can, definitely try out other gyms. Or if you the classes you take overlap with the kids classes, when one is resting askthem to give you some advice. I learnt mushrooms circles so quickly after months of trying myself after one kid spent just 10 minutes while resting teaching me because the coach couldn't. 

yeah, i've tried a lot of different gyms around my area.  actually, i go to two gyms, one is 45 min. away and the second is about 1hr. and 15 min. away from me.  but i'm still not really that impressed with them.

Ronin168 said:

yeah, i've tried a lot of different gyms around my area.  actually, i go to two gyms, one is 45 min. away and the second is about 1hr. and 15 min. away from me.  but i'm still not really that impressed with them.

So just use them to spot you....

This [longevity] is actually a topic I've been interested in for a while, and I've tried and competed at different levels in quite a bunch of physical disciplines (wrestling, running, rowing, rock climbing, parkour, and gymnastics). 

The U.S. culture intrinsically undervalues the importance of sports as a component of physical health after college. Once you start talking about all physical activities as a whole, as opposed to focusing on individual sports, you see that very few sports (if any) in the United States have as much penetration among the adults as they do among the youth. We seem to imply, as a society, that sports are a privilege of the young, and once you grow older, you have "better things to do with your time," or that "you should just go to the gym". The system seems to tell us - either you should play sports as a professional, or you shouldn't bother. This is due primarily (but not completely) to our emphasis on collegiate sports and collegiate sports teams over sports in general. 

An interesting aside - In France, sports revolve around clubs as opposed to universities - this makes the transition from college into the professional life more seamless, as you can maintain your association with a given club/entity. At the same time, the downfall of the French system is that athletics take a back seat to pretty much everything else - they're given one of the lowest priorities of the totem pole. The Soviet Union suffered from the same biases against adult sports, but they had a more developed general fitness system to compensate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_for_Labour_and_Defence_of_the_USSR  (now, granted, there were many other things wrong with the program, but this is just an example). Perhaps there isn't a so-called "best way," but there's definitely plenty of room for improvement.

There are a few disciplines I can name that seem to embrace longevity (although not universally; typically, the more competitive a sport and the shorter the competitive career in a given sport, the less importance is given to the "big picture"). The best examples that I can think of are probably found among martial artists, rock climbers and parkour practitioners (here I'm talking specifically about the founding group of french practitioners that stood by the motto "etre et durer" - to be and to last). All three of these have a utility and purpose that transcends that of the discipline. For example, one of the mottos of parkour is to be strong in order to be useful (to yourself, to society, to others). 

I have a lot of other thoughts about this, but every time I try formulate a way to express those thoughts I come up short, so perhaps I will let others, who are much more articulate about this than I am, do the talking. Here are a set of links which I implore you to read or at least peruse for your own good:

http://www.parkourgenerations.com/node/9399 - Chris Rowat, a "traditionalist" parkour practitioner explains his view of longevity in parkour, specifically addressing injury, burnout, and giving advice to prevent both. Chris runs his own blog [Power is nothing without control] at http://blane-parkour.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qUSRC-i200 - David Belle, founder of parkour, on his philosophy and approach to training.

http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/why-i-climb--how-i-still-climb-513-when-im-nearly-50-%7C-the-hrsts---a-climbing-family-ep-1/270649 - A man who climbs 5.13s at the age of 50 and who has been climbing for 37 years (5.13 is a grade reserved for quite accomplished climbers - there are maybe on the order of a few thousand climbers in the States who can climb at that level, if that)

Pashamur...

                    I hear you loud and clear; the thing is Westerners must compartmentalize (traditionally at least ) an activity, label then get a following before it can be both digested and palatable. I noticed you used David Belle as the founder of parkour and this is an example, parkour as a name simply "codified" several urban free movements...I mean I was watching Jack Chan in the 80's /90's do many of this movements, I also grew up in the base in West Africa, Nigeria and remember this is how we ran thru obstacles like deserted airfield etc (removing the unnecessary flips). It had no name, it was just simply done as an activity...maybe not "sports" been downplayed but "free sports" or sports outside certain doctrines...